HostDoc are closing down

angstrom

@cybertech said:

@angstrom said:

@cybertech said:
This isnt good.

My 3800x yearly £25gbp was refunded prorated though.

If I may ask, when did you originally order and when did you receive the prorated refund?

Hhmmmm maybe 2weeks back, refunded the day he announced closure.

I guess that one way of looking at this is that you were fortunate because the money that you had paid was "still in the pot" (so to speak).

Clouvider

@angstrom said:
Do I see correctly that one can still order services from @HostDoc's site?!

Add to this the absence of updates about the state of refunds, things don't look good.

Are all of HostDoc's servers still up? If so, I guess that @HostDoc feels that he can buy some time (i.e., that he still has technical grounds for disputing any chargebacks), but the absence of updates about the state of refunds certainly doesn't/won't encourage confidence in customers.

My speculation at the moment is that this is actually a case of deadpooling.

Yeah, trading while, likely, insolvent is very much illegal in the UK. He’s just creating himself more trouble. I explained it in the other thread iirc

angstrom

@Clouvider said:

@angstrom said:
Do I see correctly that one can still order services from @HostDoc's site?!

Add to this the absence of updates about the state of refunds, things don't look good.

Are all of HostDoc's servers still up? If so, I guess that @HostDoc feels that he can buy some time (i.e., that he still has technical grounds for disputing any chargebacks), but the absence of updates about the state of refunds certainly doesn't/won't encourage confidence in customers.

My speculation at the moment is that this is actually a case of deadpooling.

Yeah, trading while, likely, insolvent is very much illegal in the UK. He’s just creating himself more trouble. I explained it in the other thread iirc

Yes, indeed, you posted a link a couple of days ago, but at that moment, one could (still) feel more confident about the state of HostDoc than one can feel now.

MichaelCee

@dahartigan said:
Everyone, gather your pitch forks and prepare for refound by chargeback.

I haven't heard from the doc and his live chat goes unanswered (he still hasn't removed my email notifications from tawk when there are unanswered chats) that's how I know he's inactive.

I know that (sorry mate) @AlwaysSkint got his refunded right away.
I now know that other people weren't as lucky from reports here and over on LES.

And that's all I know. Do with that what you will, people. I honestly don't know how much more helpful I can be with this. It sucks but the doc has gone quiet and seems to have done a runner.

Boss,

Are you saying you still have access to sensitive customer (livechat) information after stepping down and after a huge drama about data protection with the doc?

uptime

tawk.to is the devil ...

vyas11

@uptime said:
tawk.to is the devil ...

Yama

uptime

Clouvider

@Mic-hael said:

@dahartigan said:
Everyone, gather your pitch forks and prepare for refound by chargeback.

I haven't heard from the doc and his live chat goes unanswered (he still hasn't removed my email notifications from tawk when there are unanswered chats) that's how I know he's inactive.

I know that (sorry mate) @AlwaysSkint got his refunded right away.
I now know that other people weren't as lucky from reports here and over on LES.

And that's all I know. Do with that what you will, people. I honestly don't know how much more helpful I can be with this. It sucks but the doc has gone quiet and seems to have done a runner.

Boss,

Are you saying you still have access to sensitive customer (livechat) information after stepping down and after a huge drama about data protection with the doc?

Nailed it.

dahartigan

@Mic-hael said:

@dahartigan said:
Everyone, gather your pitch forks and prepare for refound by chargeback.

I haven't heard from the doc and his live chat goes unanswered (he still hasn't removed my email notifications from tawk when there are unanswered chats) that's how I know he's inactive.

I know that (sorry mate) @AlwaysSkint got his refunded right away.
I now know that other people weren't as lucky from reports here and over on LES.

And that's all I know. Do with that what you will, people. I honestly don't know how much more helpful I can be with this. It sucks but the doc has gone quiet and seems to have done a runner.

Boss,

Are you saying you still have access to sensitive customer (livechat) information after stepping down and after a huge drama about data protection with the doc?

That's correct. The irony is too much, right?

FAT32

Calm down guys. Deals please. $2.99/yr. Thanks.

cybertech

Highly emotional. Need more deals to calm myself down.

seriesn

Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

vyas11

Out of respect for the dinosaur man, I concede on all threads. No posts if no words of praise for others.

---

The fact that @FAT32 also happens to be a mod is pure coincidence. Happy Friday.

isunbejo

@seriesn said:
Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

Boss, how much for managed services

dahartigan

@seriesn said:
Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

Sir, the drama reactor reached criticality. It's leaking approximately 3.6 roentgen. Not great, not terrible.

vyas11

@dahartigan said:

@seriesn said:
Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

Sir, the drama reactor reached criticality. It's leaking approximately 3.6 roentgen. Not great, not terrible.

As measured with....

(Thank you Messers Geiger and Mueller)

dahartigan

@vyas11 said:

@dahartigan said:

@seriesn said:
Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

Sir, the drama reactor reached criticality. It's leaking approximately 3.6 roentgen. Not great, not terrible.

As measured with....

(Thank you Messers Geiger and Mueller)

Mine only goes up to 3.6..

vyas11

@dahartigan said:

:-)

seriesn

@isunbejo said:

@seriesn said:
Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

Boss, how much for managed services

Boss,
1 idaho potato per hour. If you got sweet potato, I can do 1 every other hour.

vyas11

@seriesn said:

@isunbejo said:

@seriesn said:
Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

Boss, how much for managed services

Boss,
1 idaho potato per hour. If you got sweet potato, I can do 1 every other hour.

When you pay for two hours and use the code “mypotatofamily” you get 25% discount.

dealhacking @poisson

—————

Posted without prior approval from Potato man @Janevski. Reader discretion advised.

seriesn

@vyas11 said:

@seriesn said:

@isunbejo said:

@seriesn said:
Why is it that, the whole day, when I was bored at work, no one posted crap. I go to sleep for 5 hours and forum explodes -______-

Boss, how much for managed services

Boss,
1 idaho potato per hour. If you got sweet potato, I can do 1 every other hour.

When you pay for two hours and use the code “mypotatofamily” you get 25% discount.

dealhacking @poisson

—————

Posted without prior approval from Potato man @Janevski. Reader discretion advised.

Because family always gets extra discount!

deank

I am beginning to think that LadyDoc's real reason of shutting down is lack of funding rather than issues that he encountered.

Having said that, who cares. Must be one-off. 1.99/year deal please, 8 cores, 16gb ram, 1tb storage, 1 ivp4, etc

RossG

Two other companies owned by the director of Hostdoc have both been incorporated then seemingly abandoned and dissolved via compulsory strike-off.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09882946/filing-history
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10994609/filing-history

At least one of the companies (Naijashipping Limited) has Trustpilot activity from as recently as April 2019 (the company was struck off in 2017):

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.naijashipping.com
https://www.instagram.com/naijashipping/

They also used the domain "naijashipp.i.ng" - similar to how hostdoc used "hostdochost.i.ng". Could be a coincidence but everything points to this being the same guy.

Without speculating too much, the guy clearly has a history of setting up and abandoning companies, and it seems to have happened again. If he was legitimate he would wind up companies properly, communicate the closure with his customers, issue refunds and not abandon the company for a forced strike off. I think it's fair to assume that history will repeat itself in the case of Hostdoc.

He's VAT registered so he's obviously known to HMRC, abandoning a trading company while the website is still online and accepting orders will only end in serious trouble for him. From my perspective, this just looks like a scam - he appears to have pulled this stunt of abandoning his company before, and it seems to have happened again.

Communication has undoubtedly been HostDoc's downfall, even previously with his "rants". I really hope he starts communicating again and issuing refunds, but if this silence continues then it would be a case of disputing the lost payments and hoping for the best.

debaser

@angstrom said:
I think that my advice would be to not claim a chargeback as long as one's server is up, because the fact that the server is up would weaken the grounds for the dispute.

This is true. However, in the mail sent to his customers he clearly stated "All clients will be refunded pro-rata and a few refunds have already began being issued". This looks like a blatant lie.

Also "All payment gateways are now inactive", while it looks I can still place new orders.

Mr_Tom

RossG said: Two other companies owned by the director of Hostdoc have both been incorporated then seemingly abandoned and dissolved via compulsory strike-off.

I thought companies house showed previous roles when viewing the individual themselves, but in this case it seems to be 3 different profiles? Same name and birth month though so does look to be the case, even if address is different each time.

RossG

@Mr_Tom That's right, but it seems the director's correspondence address differs on all 3 so they've been separated. Name and DoB match so it's almost certainly the same person.

starrydots

Their official website hostdoc.co.uk? Just wanted to experience DA distributors

angstrom

@debaser said:

@angstrom said:
I think that my advice would be to not claim a chargeback as long as one's server is up, because the fact that the server is up would weaken the grounds for the dispute.

This is true. However, in the mail sent to his customers he clearly stated "All clients will be refunded pro-rata and a few refunds have already began being issued". This looks like a blatant lie.

I agree that at the moment, it doesn't look good.

My reasoning with respect to a PayPal chargeback is that a customer should want to make as strong a case as possible. If the service is still being provided, the customer has a weak case. If the service is no longer provided and the customer has waited a reasonable amount of time for a prorated refund, then the customer has a strong case. If a customer still has time before the six-month period ends within which to make a chargeback, my firm advice would be to wait (especially if the service is still being provided).

Unfortunately, there are probably some customers whose six-month period has already ended or is about to end, which is not so great. If the six-month period ends soon, I would wait until a day or two before its end to make a chargeback, but if the service is still being provided at that point, the customer's case will be weak (unfortunately).

Also "All payment gateways are now inactive", while it looks I can still place new orders.

Yes, it certainly looks like one can still place new orders, but I admit that I didn't actually try to place a new order! (I get my thrills elsewhere. )

angstrom

@starrydots said:
Their official website hostdoc.co.uk? Just wanted to experience DA distributors

Congrats on your 80th comment

FAT32

@angstrom said:
Congrats on your 80th comment

Congrats on your 5811th comment